THE RAILWAY QUESTION.

Southland Times, Issue 683, 14 June 1867, Page 2

THE RAILWAY QUESTION.

The following official correspondence was read and laid on the Council table 7 during the late sitting. In order to place our readers in possession of all the facts • of the case,, and show the anxiety of His. * Honor the Superintendent to bring the subject under discussion to a satisfactory termination, we publish the annexed : — "" .Superintendent's Office, - . . . Southland, 13th May, 1867. Sib, — Referring to my letter of the Ilth May, I have now the honor to reply more particularly to your letter of 3rd May, No. 219. In the first place, the objections which I urged with regard to the contract for the. completion, of ; the Oreti Eailway do not apply to the proposal of _£essrs Douglas, Alderson & Co, for the construction of that to- the Mataura, the latter in- ■- - volving difficult; interests and objects, and resting r altogether on previous agreement, not subject to " competition by tender. So long then at .the conditions of the Waste Lands Act and Survey Regulations are complied, with in the selection of land to betaken in payment, nothing further need be considered beyond the terms of agreement. '' The memo of Messrs Douglas, Alderson and, Co, 'of which you send me a copy, is much too rough and vague- a sketch to be laid before the Council and acted on without further, elaboration. I have therefore written to these gentlemen to request a personal interview before the Session takes place (on 27th inst.,) when I trust I may Doable to obtain their approval of the terms laid down in Dr Knight's memo; of which, as far as they go, I. approve.? : I observe, however, some points of difference in the two memos." Messrs Douglas and Co., (sections 1 and 8), contemplate the construction of: the line by.theY> Government, they, advancing the money. Dr Enight (sections 1 "and 4) proposes that the Company should construct the line, at -the G-overnment Engineer's estimate, and be refunded in land at a pound an acre. The latter is doubt-, less to be preferred by us. But I should hardly think it likely the Company- would. co_usent to ; Ay.' accept our engineer's estimate unchecked by one of their own. This point We -must be prepared to yield if -nsisted upon,; although it might be .their interest to concede it rather than not get the Eailway made at aIL And doubtless they would make it at less cost than .we could, the bulk of the cost "being the imported iron, and they being -intimately connected with the iron tirade at home. t *' iA}. They would also have greater facilities for engaging freight at a low rate, a very material part of the calculation, and an item in which wewetfe — at great disadvantage in the construction of the Bluff Harbor line. There is an indication of this in the last section of their memo, and they may,., perhaps, after all, on that consideration, agree. to .-.- Dr Knight's proposal. It would certainly save the Government a world of trouble and also certainly much money. I will do my best to gain; 7 the point. Messrs Douglas & Co. propose to Select thenland in blocks of not less than 2,000 acres. (See Section -5.), Dr Knight (Section 7) proposes, .... 20,000. ' -" -' l M I should think it very probable that as the ~ company is supposed to take' the land for their own purposes they would for their own interestr r take it as much in large blocks as they can get it. But it is desirable for the interests of the Province that they should also be allowed *td.take up land within the non-pastoral districts wbere the whole of their estates "are situated, and; where it is; probable that it might.be convenient for then*. . > to select muob land which would not be likely to,. ',- find other purchasers for many years to come. . . .-.; The Commissioner of Crown Lands strongl-fr f - urges this, and I think therefore that as regards "" the non-pastoral districts their right of selection should .be limited solely .by. the Waste Lands 4s* and Survey Regulations. I think too that in seleoting in the pastoral districts they should be allowed, with the consent of the Waste Laud Board, to take natural boundaries, and because in their case the abuse of « spotting "is inot likely to be perpetrated, tba| \h»j ihQ-jJslnoib- t_o etrMy fled, do^ to, tbaL?

am aware that the runholders would be much less likely to oppose the undertaking if greater restrictions were imposed, yet I should be disposed to agreato Messrs Douglas and Co.'s own limit, rather than ' by refusing it create an obstacle in the project which their principals might consider insuperable. As in the last paragraph of your letter of the 3rd May, you require that the " special limitation suggested by Dr Knight should be adhered to as regards the Mataura line," I would request that you will be good enough to inform me for my guidance at your earliest convenience whether after considering the above remarks the General G-overnment will insist on this condition as a sine qua non. It might, and I think would be an inadmissable one with the Company, and in this particular case, excepting that it would moderate the opposition of the squatters do harm rather than good. As far, however, as Messrs. Douglas and Co., seem likely to concede it, I shall, in deterence to your wishes, endeavor to urge it j though it will be a pity if the project should fall through from my failing to obtain their assent to Dr. Knight's unmodified proposal. To the second paragraph of Messrs. Douglas and Cos. memo, I think there will be^no objection, as one of our Engineers and the Chief Surveyor have already reported in favor of the proposal. The third section is simply a matter of calculation for Engineers. The fourth is of course agreed upon. The fifth I have already discussed. The sixth I see no objection to. The seventh, as complied by Dr. Knight, and with still further additions, is accepted. The eighth depends on whether the Company or the Government undertakes the works. On Dr. Knight's memo, I would remark that the latter part of the second section .should be insisted on, with the addition, it obtainable, that the Company should be obliged, at the option of the Government to continue the construction of the line, on the same conditions to any further point in the direction of, or as far as the Longford, on the Mataura. None of the other stipulations proposed by Dr. Knight, and which I have not already commented on, are I think, likely to be objected to, either by the Company or the Provincial Council. I shall be glad to have, as you^were kind enough to suggest, the advantage of the AttorneyGeneral's revision of the proposed contracts, and it will also be a great satisfaction to the Provincial Government that the works on completion should be examined and certified to by an Engineer appointed by the General Government. The stipulation following these suggestions in your letter of 2nd May, (page 8) that " certificates from these tyro officers should be periodically furnished in respect of every piece (say two or three miles) if work done " you will I think find, on reference to any Engineer to be unworkable. As all the rails, chairs, fish plates, turntables, &c, will have to be imported, it is probable that the whole of the cuttings, embankments, bridges, culverts, and perhaps station buildings may be completed before any rails could arrive to finish any particular number of miles ; and it would be a manifest hardship if a contractor were to receive no progress payment for so much outlay. The certificates for progress payments should be granted by the Engineers from time to time, simply on their estimate of the value of the work done, not of the number of miles completed. I have as yet no opportunity of consulting our Engineer on' the subject of your letters, as he is up the country. I shall send for him to-morrow and communicate to you whatever suggestions he may think it necessary to add to the above remarks, to which I respectfully request an early reply. I have the honor to be, Sir, ! Your obedient servant, Jno. P. Tayxob, Superintendent. The Honorable the Colonial Secretary, Wei-

lington. ♦ . Superintendent's Office, Southland, 13th May, 1867. Sib, — Referring to my letter of this morning on the completion of the Oreti Railway, I now have the honor of again addressing you on the subject. I assume that in all cases where a Government contracts for the construction of works by paying for them in land, instead of money, the first consideration should be to get it done as cheaply as possible, which means in this case to part with as Uttle land as possible as an equivalent for cash. Your proposed conditions stipulate. Ist. That the contract price shall not exceed the Eugineer's estimate. Second. That in no case shaU *61 of contract price represent more than one acre of land ; but you assume that under valuation by the Waste Land Board it may be made to represent less. Now any one contracting For the railway for land payments must either want the land to be so acquired for his own use or he must reckon on selling his certificates at such a rate as will return hnr* the same amount in money as he undertook the works for. In the first case it would be optional with him to purchase the land he wanted under all the advantages open to the pubUc generaUy, free selection all over the Province included. He would therefore not subject himself to your conditions for attaining his object. In the second case, i.e., if he did not want the land for his own purposes, which is the only case at aU probable, or indeed conceivable, he is placed in the position of a trader who buys goods to seU again, and as it is with him a mere matter of trade he must not enter on the undertaking without the prospect of a profit on the^ outlay of his money. As this is not to be attained in a market where similar goodp, and in greater variety, sre always on sale at the same price as he gave for his, he must make his profit beforehand — that is, in the present case, he must take the contract on such terms as will leave him a profit on his outlay if he sells his land again at market price. But the chances are that however judiciously a contractor may have selected his land, an intending purchaser would not give him the same price for it as he would give if he had the choice of selection (which he has) over 2,000,000 acres. Therefore he must have another margin in his calculation for discount on the sale of his certificates and for interest t_l he can part with them. Now according to your proposal, somebody else, that is the Government, the seller is to select his goods for him. H, under aU these drawbacks, any contractor should be speculative enough to tender, his terms must be high indeed to compensate for his risks and disadvantges in competing with the Government in the re-dis-posal of. his land, It foUows therefore that if we are to get the work done as cheaply as possible, we must give the contractors at least the same advantages in selecting their land as we give Other purchasers! otherwise we drive them in Belfrdefence to tea-!® ftt a, bjfi^ grifl_ f ft» tS

It will not do to urge,: that in any case^ he will - make a profit on the- contract in the first instance, and can therefore afford to. loose a little on tlie sale' of the- land, because no contractor would do the work without a. profit, even for cash. It is clear that it is no boon to the contractor, with selection under the most favourable circumstances, to give him land in lieu of money, and quite the reverse to deprive him at the same time of all the advantages open to every other purchaser. » But it.is a great boon to us to pay 50,000, acres of land instead of £50,000, which must be re-sold ;to arid occupied by somebody (implying of course additional employment of capital and additional population) for the accomplishment of an undertaking which will render the rest of the. estate ;of the Province more valuable or more saleable. ; In writing to you this morning I annexed a; copy of a resolution of the Executive Council on the subject. This resolution was arrived at, I - think, partly in deference to a suggestion to that effect by Dr Knight, and partiy on .the supposition that there would be less opposition to the measure by the squatters if some such restriction were imposed. But on re-consideration (and in this the Provincial Secretary, the only member of the Executive at present in town agrees with me), I think it undesirable for the above reasons to restrict the selection of land even to the extent therein suggested. On the contrary, I would for the sake of reducing the amount of land to be alienated for the purpose in view, leave it optional with a contractor to select in payment for the work to be done, any quantity he pleases before signing the contract (reserving whatever he selects, and obliging him to abide by that selection as far as it went), and when the land thus selected had been worked off, let him select for each subsequent certificate, either as soon as issued, or at any future time. I think there would be no objection to retaining the condition restricting the selectj&n in pastoral districts, two blocks of not less than say a thoussand acres, which would prevent the absurd system (for it is simply absurdj and cannot attain its desired object) of spotting. I forwarded a copy of your letter to the Commissioner of Crown Lands, with the request that he would give me for your information hisopinion of your proposal, and will enclose his answer if received in time. As it is not likely that I shall be able to receive your reply to this letter before the Council meets on the 27th inst, I propose to ask the Provincial Council to pass a resolution recommending a grant of say 60,000 acres of land for the completion of the Oreti line which will then in terms of the Land Act have to be confirmed by the Governor in Council. Mr Paterson's estimate for cash is £50,000, and he says it is a moderate one. But the preliminary expenses of plans and survey, and specifications will also be considerable. These I propose to add to the contract price and pay for them also in land as you propose to do in the case of the Eastern line. . If you approve of this plan, subject of course to all the conditions-of the Waste Lands Act and the Survey Regulations, perhaps you will be kind enough to intimate your approval by telegram. — I have i&c, &c. (Signed) John P. Taylob, Superintendent. Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, 25th May, 1867. Sib, — I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Honor's three letters of the dates 13th May, 1867, 13th May, 1867, 15th May, 1867, on the subject of the construction of the proposed Eastern and Oreti Railways in the Province of Southland. _ ' As your Honor waß still in communication with Messrs. Douglas, Alderson and Co., with reference to the Eastearn Eailway, it is unnecessary for me to advert to it in this letter. With respect to the Oreti Railway, the Oo vernment would approve of a contract being entered into for its completion, on the following terms, as the basis of an arrangement for its construction. 1. Waste Lands to be given by way of payment for the completion of the Oreti Eailway, at the rate of one acre of land for every pound of cost of construction. 2. The cost of the work as estimated by an Engineer, approved by the G-eneral and Provincial Governments, to be the contract price to be paid in land for the execution of the work. 3. The land selected to be in blocks of not less than two thousand acres of unsurveyed land. 4. The selection of the land to be made on the issue of certificates, as the work progresses. 6. Land to be taken as regards shape and frontage, in accordance with the " Waste Lands Act." 6. Sixty thousand acres of land to be recommended by the Provincial Council to be granted for the completion of the Railway. I have the honor to be, Sir, _ Your obedient servant, E. W. Stactobd.

The state of. the distress to which the Auckland working classes are reduced may be judged of from the foUowing paragraph, which appears in the "Southern Cross": — Yesterday morning about one hundred men appUed at the office of the Engineer-in-Chief, for employment in accordance with the intimation of His Honor afc the meeting on the previous day. The foUowing notice was posted in the lobby :: — " Notice to the unemployed. — M.n who are in want of employment at quarrying or breaking stones, either at Gittos" quarry on the North Road, or at Newmarket or Mount Eken, at the rate of 3s 6d per cubic yard for 2$ inch metal, are requested to, form themselves into squads or parties in convenient numbers (of five if possible), and attend at this office between two and three o'clock to-morrow (Wednesday), to receive injunctions to go to work* the foUowing morning. Those who can break only wiU be provided with employment as soon as possible at 2s 6d per yard, for 2i inoh metal." We beUeve that there was considerable grumbling at the lowness of the rate to be paid j and of course it is a low rate, so low that deoent wages cannot be made at it. * It must be remembered, however, that the object of the Government is not to find remunerative employment for these men, but only to give them, an opportunity of earning as much as wiU keep them from want. It is with some difficulty that the Government , have arranged to give the aid thej* have, and they have not the least desire tbat any man should, vmm t*t it if h_ can, §at spjtUiujj tUt. i*st " "' 7.1."